Re: Simplifying question

Originally Posted by Mathbeg

Oh, my teacher told me it would be wrong.
maybe he meant wrong for GCSE only.

He was probably referring to the markscheme. Generally it's better to have things factored with fractions for GCSE exams. It's good practice for things like series, integration, proofs, inequalities and so forth later on when having factored numerators/denominators can make life very simple.

Re: Simplifying question

You need to get the denominator the same in each fraction before you can add. So, 1/x becomes 1(x+1)/x(x+1), and 2/(x+1) becomes 2(x)/x(x+1). At this point you can add the fractions being that the denominator in each is the same. So, what is 1(x+1) + 2(x)?

Re: Simplifying question

Looks like my question is confusing.

What i mean is: The numerator 1(x+1) + 2(x) why dont we keep it as it is as we did in the denominator ? the deno will be x(x+1) at the end, why not write x^2 + x as we did for the 1(x+1)..... in the numerator ?